Monday, January 29, 2018

Anarok & The Silver Hell 2

An hour after setting foot on the silver sands, Anarok was starting to think she had made a bad mistake. Even though the moldhounds' baying had drifted away, the houndmaster had wisely decided not to pursue her into the Silver Hells, the heat was oppressive.
Sweat poured off of Anarok.  The reflected light from the surrounding landscape was blinding. She took off her threadbare shirt and wrapped it around her head.  It did nothing to help.
By the start of her second hour in the Silver Hells, Anarok knew she had made a mistake. The moons were sinking into the west and, as hot as the Hells were by their light, Anarok didn't want to think what the place would be like in the day.  Especially at noon.
She started looking for a place to hold up during the coming day.
That was when she saw the tent.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Anarok & The Silver Hell

The Silver Hell stretched before them, a bleak, bright desert that had claimed untold lives over the centuries. Anarok did not care.  She could not afford to care.
Behind her, she heard the baying of the moldhounds. It was a wet, terrifying sound. Anarok imagined she could smell them on the still air, the wet stink of their hybrid bodies.  If they caught her, she knew she would be subjected to a slow, painful death.
But, and she turned back to the Silver Hell, if she tried to cross that landscape there was a chance - an infintesimal chance - that she might survive.
At the very least, she would live longer than she would in the hand of the moldhounds' master.
Her mind set, Anarok drew a breath and placed a sandaled foot on the shimmering silver sand.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

2018

Good evening, gentle readers! And a belated Happy New Year to you all!
So, let's be honest. 2017 was a pretty shit year for a lot of people. There were political upheavals, wars, terrorist incidents, etc. Sometimes, it felt like whoever's supposed to be in charge of the world just walked away from the controls to have a drink and came back sort of drunk.
Yeah, 2017 was not a great year.
So, what's in the cards for 2018? Something better? Something different?
I'm damned if I know. All I know for certain is that, now that the holiday season is over, I'm finally starting to feel a bit Christmassy.
I know.
Awful.
Right?
Right.
But it's the truth.  I'm wandering around my house humming Christmas carols and we're halfway through January. Someone told me I should convert to the Russian Orthodox faith as they celebrate Christmas after December.
Sadly, I'm not sure I can do anything orthodox.
So far, though, 2018 hasn't been bad. Just cold. Too cold. I live in the South, I don't want to hear the word 'snowfall.'  If I wanted that, I'd still be living in Alaska. I wouldn't have come back home.
Also, I'm now a year older. I went walkabout on my birthday. Just got in my car and drove. I had planned to go visit a monastery near me, but that didn't happen. Instead, it turned into an extended car trip which included encounters with people who should probably never ever contemplate having children.  Seriously.
And I'm looking for someone to rent a room in my house. Do I even have to tell you what a freak parade that's turning out to be?  I have very little patience with applicants who don't read my ad on Craigslist. I don't respond to people who send me a one line text from their phone asking for more info from me.
Fuck 'em.
They don't even have the brains to read and comprehend an advertisement then I'm not even going to bother replying to them. Idiots.
Honestly, I don't even want to rent the room out. I'm thinking of putting my place on the market this spring and seeing what I can get for it. That would be harder to do with a renter, cluttering up the joint.
But that's the future, the "undiscovered country." I'm not worrying about the future.
And then there's the writing. Last year, my D&D stuff pretty much devoured this blog. I enjoyed it as it was a steady creative outlet, but it was, literally, all the fucking writing I did. So, this year, I'm trying to branch out a bit and get back into writing an actual story.
We'll see how that goes.
And that's pretty much it for me.
What next?
Your guess is as good as mine.